If you look back over Steve Buscemi's acting credits, you'll notice one very obvious theme: the actor has repeatedly played creepy weirdos. In Billy Madison, he plays a transvestite that has more than just a small obsession with the people that bullied him as a child, In Armageddon he plays a reluctant astronaut that ends up losing his sanity and almost killing his friends and in Con Air he plays an infamously deranged serial killer that needs to be locked up at all times. It could be Buscemi's appearance that has seen him cast as such or even his distinctive voice, but if one thing is for definite, it's that Buscemi can undoubtedly play much more interesting roles than just a weird loner that gets on everyone's nerves. The Typecast-Breaking Roles: We're cheating a bit here by using examples exclusive to television and not film, but that makes the roles no less brilliant. As Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, Buscemi has garnered significant critical praise for his portrayal of a powerful politician and gangster in prohibition era America. Likewise, Buscemi played the reformed gangster Tony Blundetto in The Sopranos, a role which enabled him to play a (by the show's standards) normal person trying to make an honest living while surrounded by criminals. That wraps up our list of typecast actors that managed to break the habit: it's time for everyone else to have their say. Are there any actors not mentioned here that you think should be? Let us know in the comments below.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
